One of the newsletters that I read on a regular basis comes fromNew Pace Consulting, a dynamic company that helps its clients improve their business processes and systems.

New Pace recently wrote an article about the value of mentoring. It was in the context of mentoring for managing one’s business processes; however, the principles apply with equal weight to mentoring for leadership, personal development or public speaking.

What should one expect from a good mentoring relationship? Drawing on what it has read in theHarvard Business Review, New Pace has identified three characteristics that it considers most important:

Good mentoring:

tells you things you may not want to hear, but leaves you feeling that you have been heard;

leaves you with the desire to become better; and

makes you feel secure enough to take risks and seize opportunities.

Solid benefits, indeed.

Working with a good mentor can help you improve your public speaking skills significantly. In future posts, we’ll examine some of the aspects of mentoring in more detail.